The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1)

by Jenny Han

[layawaydragon]

Read for free on Rivetedlit.com.


The Good The Bad & The Other
+ Enjoyed the past and present narratives - Felt bad for Other-School Guy
+ Group dynamic I never thought of before - Don’t understand Belly’s attraction to Conrad
+ Light summer read - Don’t see Jeremiah’s attraction
+ Entertaining - Don’t care for the characters and hardly liked them
+ Their mothers are wonderful parents and their friendship is phenomenal - Don’t like this love triangle
+ One father at least tries though he’s removed and absent in this tale - Bullshit Intro and Epilogue passages
- Felt manipulative with missing information




I’m a huge fan of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I Loved Before series (there’s a third coming out!!) and her Burn for Burn series with her BFF Siobhan Vivian (they are fucking adorable). So of course I put this series on my TBR. Then it was free to read and it’s summer, I figured it was meant to be and dove right in.

And face planted. Before I lost my work.

After a seemingly innocuous introduction passage, The Summer I Turned Pretty starts with the tail end of the trip up to the beach house with belly’s family. Quickly we meet The Fisher Boys and know Belly’s right that this summer will be differently.

It was very easy to get into and I was curious about the dynamics at play. As an introverted only child, none of this is familiar to me. I liked the past chapters included for relevant context because they seem to have a really complicated history. In reality? It’s very simple but dramatic. It’s the beginning of a soap opera before they move to a small town with a cast with equally convoluted relationships and become entangled themselves.

Belly had me from the get-go and then lost me with her antics. She’s a relatable late-bloomer of a girl. Sadly, she’s shallow and melodramatic. Everything is about her and even after the reality-slap “twist”, it still is. I wish someone wasn’t interested in her, someone talked some sense to her, and she grew up but none of that happens.

Instead, Belly slut-shames her closest girl friend from school, uses a guy to make another jealous, pushes her brother away until it’s too late, and plays the brothers against each other.

It’s disturbing how wrapped up in her beach life she is; she wastes the other nine months of her life not participating because of it.  Belly happily admit to this and FraF confirms it. Why does no one else realize how fucked that is?

Neither boy appealed to me and if there was any justice Other-School Boy and the Bonfire Girl would hook up. I’d rather follow their story.

Instead, we get Conrad and Jeremiah. The classic bad boy and nice guy dichotomy. I hated how Conrad acted and treated other people. Jeremiah was obviously more charming but it felt fake. The narrative felt manipulative in general and what illuminates that is the part I solidly enjoyed: the past memories.

It’s clear in the past Conrad stuck up for Belly and noticed her. There’s even a few moments in the present that continues the thread before he ruins it all. Yet Belly insults him with how self-absorbed he is and how he dates other women. She’s clearly still bitter, jealous, and something happened to change him but we never find out what.

Jeremiah, who Belly calls her best friend, has the exact opposite going on. He was a dickbag growing up and now is too good to be true.

Supposedly, Belly is only torn because Jeremiah is attainable while she lusts after the aloof and brooding Conrad. I’m supposed to feel bad for Jeremiah, and root for Bellyrad but something is off. My Spidey-senses are tingling. I wish I still had my notes so I could be less fucking vague.



*SIGH*



Somehow this train wreck of teenage drama and angst kept me reading. It’s light and breezy. I still like the way Han writes, even if I don’t like what I’m reading. That is until the end.

The ending itself is fine and the end of summer is a natural breaking point. I have zero issues with this. It’s the epilogue that’s an extended version of the intro passage that I fucking hate. 

I thought since the intro was in the future, the ending would lead there. Nope! Summer ends, everyone goes home, and then we get this titillating passage of Belly sneaking to be with one of the boys. IN WINTER!

There’s zero connection between the end of summer and this moment. Not only does it kill the natural ending, it spoils who Belly ends up with no context or growth. Before this section, it was an alright beach read. After, I wondered why I wasted my fucking time. I wouldn’t have bothered reading The Summer I Turned Pretty knowing all this going In, even as a fan of Han’s previous work.